Political Science · Political Processes in India
UGC NET Oct 2020 Political Science
Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion A and the other labelled as Reason R. Choose the correct answer from the codes given below.
Assertion (A): In India, the parties which formed governments held a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies, but not a majority of the votes.
Reason (R): Elections under the majority vote system decide the result on the basis of the relative majority of votes secured.
ABoth A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A ✓ Correct
BBoth A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
CA is true, but R is false
DA is false, but R is true
Correct answer: (A) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A — Both statements are correct and the reason explains the assertion, so the first option fits.
Explanation
★Both statements are correct and the reason explains the assertion, so the first option fits.
★Under India's first-past-the-post system, a party can win most seats without winning most of the total votes.
★The reason states that the system decides each result on a relative majority, that is the highest number of votes in a seat.
★Because seats are won on relative majorities, a party's seat share can far exceed its vote share.
★This is exactly why governing parties have often held a seat majority without a vote majority.
★Weigh seats against votes here: relative-majority voting converts a vote plurality into a seat majority.
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